How should we approach this day? By now Jesus had stirred up a great deal of trouble in Jerusalem, especially with the temple leadership. He had overturned tables in the temple courtyard and berated the leadership, calling their authority into question. As sung in Jesus Christ Superstar, “This Jesus, this Jesus, this Jesus must die!”
How should we approach the night that is to come? Could the events we know as Good Friday have occurred without Judas Iscariot, the man who points Jesus out with a kiss? We think of a kiss as a sign of care, not betrayal. But how often in our own lives have we betrayed our stated intentions with what amounts to a kiss, a sign of love?
We move from our own deep communion with and commitment to others to pulling back, usually out of fear, as did the disciples. Uncertain of where our words will lead us, we equivocate. Even though we know how this story ends, we are less sure of where our story ends. Living faithfully is difficult, to be sure.
Prayer for the Day
Each year we approach this day with trepidation, O God,
For it calls us to examine our lives in ways we do not want;
Each year we want to get past our discomfort with the story,
For we want to pass over the weekend into Easter.
But, in truth, we know that the promise of new life does not occur
Until we have moved past the old lives we have lived.
In the name of the One who is your promise of new life,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
The great metaphors from all spiritual traditions — grace, liberation, being born again, awakening from illusion — testify that it is possible to transcend the conditioning of my past and do a new thing.
Sam Keen, writer, from Hymns to an Unknown God
It is the closing of the heart far more than the closing of the mind that keeps folk from transformation and deepening.
Jean Houston, writer, from Search for the Beloved
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
But II know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Psalm 51: 1-3